


One Good Honest Kiss

by althus



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-12 19:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17473505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/althus/pseuds/althus
Summary: Art Heist AU:Veronica lips twitched between a frown and an indulgent smile. "I'm not a thief, I just assemble them. Call me if you need anything, but I want to empower you all to devise your own way to snare Lena Luthor and her paintings. Shall we cheers to the start of a successful venture?"Psi and Livewire raised their glasses. Kara gave a nod of agreement to Alex, so the Danvers sisters joined in on the toast to taking on Lena Luthor for a $10 million windfall.





	1. Assemble the Crew

The clock struck midnight as Kara cleared away the empty shot glasses and wiped the bar down with a washcloth. With her shift over, she trudged to the employee break room where fluorescent lights buzzed overhead and a muted television tuned to ESPN was mounted in a corner. Popping open her locker, Kara slipped her black vest onto a wooden hanger and deposited her cufflinks into their velvet box. She sniffed a wrinkled gray polo before changing out of her white dress shirt.

Returning to the bar with her laptop bag slung over her shoulder, Kara sat down at an empty table in a corner where she slid out of her Oxfords and gave her toes a quick massage. She reminded herself to pop an Aleve before going to bed. The latest writing assignment filled up the laptop display, and Kara began clacking away on the keyboard. A few paragraphs into staring at the blaring white screen, however, already had Kara rubbing her eyes. The clink of drinks a few tables over inspired her to head back behind the bar to prepare a glass of club soda with a twist of lime before returning to the Word document's blinking cursor.

A woman slid into the table next to Kara's accompanied by a Manhattan in her hand. A tattoo of coiling snakes peaked out from beneath her red dress, whose slit parted open as she crossed her legs. In another era, a cigarette would have smoldered from her lips. Only when her eyes met Kara's did the bartender realize she'd been staring instead of concentrating on her paper.

"Hello, there. What are you working on?" the woman asked before taking a sip from the cocktail.

Kara looked back down at her laptop. "Just something for a journalism class—business and economic reporting. I finished a shift behind the bar not too long ago so I figured I should keep working while I'm in that mindset. If I head back home now, I'll change into my pajamas and think about how comfy my bed is or how there's that show on Netflix I really wanted to start. Then my entire morning would be ruined by feelings of guilt about procrastinating."

"There used to be an always crowded tapas restaurant half a block from my office, but I never tried it because after a long day of work, I needed to get as far away from that neighborhood as I could. I can see your point, though. I look forward to reading your byline one of these days and bragging to people that I met you when you were pounding out sentences at a noisy hotel bar on a Tuesday night."

Kara lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Yes, we get plenty of loud professionals maxing out their dinner per diem on booze, and they're all tempting me to add a shot of vodka into this club soda. On the other hand, there's an energy in the air from all the travelers unwinding after a day crammed into an airplane by socializing with their coworkers in a new context."

"Hey, that's me aside from having coworkers. I tried them once, and I would not recommend it. My direct flight from Singapore landed earlier tonight, so here I am—jetlagged and indulging in a good, stiff drink." The woman raised her glass into the air in a salutation which Kara reciprocated. "Do you mind if I take a look at what you're working on? I majored in finance in college, so I could give you some pointers. I found the classes incredibly boring, but I need something to do before I head back to my hotel room."

Kara bit her lips before answering, "Sure, why not?" Despite her chipper perspective, her brain had been fried from 6 hours of taking drink orders, and she welcomed a second set of eyes on her assignment.

"Veronica Sinclair," the woman offered as she pulled up a chair at Kara's table.

"Kara Danvers," she replied as she tilted the laptop toward Veronica. "Why'd you stick with finance if you weren't that interested in it?"

Veronica took another sip from her drink. "My parents were going to pay my tuition and rent but made it clear I had to pursue a respectable career that also offered a decent paycheck, so it was either finance, law or medicine. I served in the student government at my boarding school—another of my parent's ideas—and by happenstance was put in charge of fundraising efforts with the parents and alumni. I found I enjoyed the 'client' interaction and money side of things, and as a teenager making major life decisions for herself, that was enough to put me on the finance path. So, what am I looking at here?"

"An article on the effects of proposed tariffs on the National City port. Hitting the ground to interview people has been fun—synthesizing economic reports and putting together data tables, not so much," Kara answered.

Veronica chuckled. "After graduation, I endured two years of formatting PowerPoints at a big bank before striking out on my own, so I can sympathize."

"What do you do now?"

"I went back for my MBA—also paid for by the parents—and decided I didn't want to return to finance. I would say I'm an entrepreneur but that phrase is so overplayed these days," Veronica said with a roll of her eyes. "I travel around as a consultant for companies looking for expansion opportunities. Why journalism, aside from the obvious interviewing skills because I've done nothing but talk about myself?"

"I thought it would be the best way to help people with my own two hands. Everyone in my class dreams about that one headline that will change the world and win them a Pulitzer. I'm a long way from there, but I'm holding out hope," Kara said as she adjusted her glasses to distract from the embarrassment on her cheeks.

"You have higher ideals than me," Veronica said with a curl of her lips. "Do you want to head up to my room where we can continue looking over your paper?"

Kara swallowed hard. As Veronica's fingertips trailed over her forearm, Kara grasped onto Veronica's wrist in a vice with one hand while the other hand latched onto the pickpocket who had come up behind Kara to target her wallet. Kara stared down Veronica as her eyebrows knitted together.

The mask of seduction fell from Veronica's visage before a predatory smile took its place. "I was skeptical you had the guts for what I needed when your sister told me she wanted you on our heist, so I had to come here to scope you out. I'd written you off as a do-gooder, but color me impressed."

"You can let go of us now," the female pickpocket said with a jerk of her arm. "We're not going to rob you; Veronica just wanted to fuck with you, and I came along for the ride to test your skills." Kara relaxed her grip as she stared back and forth between the two women. The pickpocket wore a leather jacket and had dyed her hair white. Veronica downed the remainder of her drink and collected her clutch purse.

"Don't be too mad at Alex. I didn't tell her about my little evaluation, but a $2 million payday for each of you should help smooth over any sore feelings. Talk to your sister about my offer and get back to me. I hope to see you two again soon," Veronica said as she stood up from the table and straightened her dress. The pickpocket gave Kara an air kiss and a wave goodbye as the pair exited the bar.

Kara shoved her laptop back into her bag and punched in a text message telling Alex that she had met Veronica and was coming over.

 

Alex's fingers tapped against her knee as she read and re-read Kara's text. She licked her lips for another scotch and soda, but thought it best to stay in full control of her faculties when explaining the situation to her sister. Kara pounded against the apartment door. Alex took a breath before answering it wishing she'd taken that drink. Kara burst into the apartment in a whirlwind and overwhelmed Alex in a bear hug. "Someone named Veronica approached me after work and tried to pick my pocket and she said she was evaluating me for a job. Is everything okay? Are you in danger? $2 million?"

Alex tensed up against the hug before relaxing into Kara's arms. "I'm fine. Not great, but I'm doing fine. How many speeding tickets did you get on the way over here? Take a seat, and I can try to explain."

Kara tucked her laptop bag under the coffee table as she sat on the edge of the sofa. Alex ran her fingers through her hair. She muttered, "I'm going to kill Veronica. I really wanted to tell you about this myself."

"Then tell me now. She only gave me the barest details."

Alex leaned forward and tried to maintain eye contact with her sister. "Veronica approached me a few days ago out of the blue asking me to join a crew she was assembling. I blew her off at first, but I followed up with some of our old contacts to find out more about her, so I could watch my back. They told me she's legit. Well, not legitimate but you know what I mean. Veronica appeared on the scene a few years ago running an underground fighting ring in National City—mostly brawling meatheads, but she gilded the whole operation with a bit of class so it became the place to be seen. She used those underworld connections to transform herself into a broker for criminals in need of criminal services."

"I thought we promised each other to stay on the straight and narrow?" Kara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'd wrapped up a gig providing some on-site security consultation for a corporate client and got stuck in rush hour traffic for two hours on the way home. I was unwinding with a beer or three and started reminiscing about the fun we used to have on our cons. I pulled out my phone to call Veronica not even expecting her to pick up. She did, and we got to talking. She asked if I knew anyone without a criminal record who could get close to a mark. Your name slipped from my mouth as a possibility. I wanted to bring it up to you first, but I didn't think Veronica would reach out directly so soon."

"We've got jobs and student loans now," Kara stated.

"I would say they'll still be there when we're done, but $2 million pays off a lot of student loans and buys a lot of time on the beach, where you can spend your days writing a bestselling memoir about your time as a con artist," Alex said. "I don't want to drag you back in with me, but I would feel better with someone I trust at my side at the introductory dinner in a few days. Please-with-a-cherry-on-top come with me, and if you don't like what we hear, we walk away."

"What's the job?" Kara asked after a pause.

"An art heist."

Kara groaned. Art heists were for amateurs who had watched too many movies. Paintings were easy to steal—the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 by a former Louvre employee who hid the masterpiece under his old uniform and walked out a side door. The trick lay in realizing a profit. A slim cross-section existed between those who could shell out 7 to 8 figures for a piece of art, fall in love enough to open their pocketbook, and be willing to associate with the underworld to obtain something they could never openly display. The Mona Lisa's thief was arrested two years later trying to 'return' the painting to its native land in Florence, asking of a local gallery a reward worth only a tenth of the painting's estimated value on the conservative end.

A century later the same story played out 2 miles from the Louvre at the Paris Museum of Modern art where a career burglar unscrewed an exterior window pane and slipped into the ground floor under the cover of night. He walked past the malfunctioning motion sensors to steal five paintings valued at a combined €100 million. He was arrested with his accomplices a year later still in the process of seeking out buyers for the works, though the paintings remained unrecovered by the authorities, either destroyed as the criminals admitted at trial or stashed away for the day of their freedom to try selling them again.

"I know, I know, but this is different," Alex responded. "Veronica says her contact commissioned her for this specific job, and I’m inclined to believe her on that point given the circles she runs in. Our payment is already guaranteed if we can deliver the goods. We just need to do our thing like back in the day."

Kara stood up and paced about the room. "One last job? Alright, I'll go with you to the dinner—because you said please and we don't hang out enough anymore—but I'm withholding my judgement."

 

Alex handed her car keys over to the valet. The two sisters trod on the stone pathway through the Japanese garden complete with a pagoda. Up a flight of steps and past the heavy wooden doors, a hostess in a black dress shirt welcomed them inside with a bow. Inside the restaurant, tables in the open air ringed a koi pond underneath the National City night sky. The hostess led them down a narrow flight of steps into a hallway lit with faux gas lanterns. She slid open the screen doors to a private room where Veronica and the rest of the crew had gathered on tatami mats at a low wooden table. Screen prints and calligraphy hung on the walls.

"Nice cardigan," the pickpocket called out to Kara. She sat cross legged with her knees poking out from her ripped jeans. Kara's let the comment pass as she surveyed the assembled group.

"Thanks for coming," Veronica said as she put down her sake cup. She occupied the head of the table with her legs tucked under her thighs. "As it's the first time we're all together, let's have a round of introductions. We have Leslie Willis, aka Livewire, and Gayle Marsh, aka Psi, to my right. This is Alex and Kara Danvers. We have a lot of money on the line so let's all learn to play nice."

Veronica pulled out a stack of auction catalogs from under the table and passed them around. Kara leafed through the glossy pages, which were filled mostly with abstract expressionist works. Veronica continued, "The collection within this booklet is currently under lock and key at the Geneva Freeport in Switzerland, famed for its world class storage facilities from degree perfect climate control to state of the art security systems, but they'll soon be heading back to the States. Our job is to intercept them before they go up for auction. My buyer's main target is the Rothko on page 25."

Kara flipped to the image, which looked like a dark square sitting atop a slightly less dark square. A second and third inspection uncovered visions of gold and purple from the brushstrokes of the central block like an afterimage. Blues and greens blurred the borders between the two masses. The buried levels of paint pulled Kara deeper into the work, and she came up for air only as Psi interrupted Veronica. "The catalog says the expected auction price is $45 million. I count five of us here. At $2 million per person, that's only $10 million, which is much lower than forty-five, unless you're getting a much larger cut than us."

Veronica replied, "$10 million is what I'm getting from the buyer. If you can find someone in the next few months who's willing to offer a higher price, I'm happy to admit defeat and let you four split the bounty. My prediction, however, is that you'll nab the painting and not find a single person in the world willing to touch it. Stick with me, and I'll deposit your reward into an offshore account obscured beneath three interlocking shell corporations before your plane even lands in Bali."

As Psi pursed her lips, Veronica elaborated further, "I also wanted to save this for later after our meal, but my contact is advancing each of you $20,000 so no one has to worry about paying the rent while we're on the job. Are we good?" Psi nodded as Veronica passed out envelopes each stuffed with a bound packet of hundred-dollar bills. Livewire grinned as she took a swig from her Asahi beer. The crew tucked the offerings away before the waitress returned with their plates of sushi.

"Who's the mark?" Alex asked as she dipped a salmon roll into a mixture of wasabi and soy sauce.

"Lena Luthor," Veronica said. She passed out photos of Lena—some from press pictures and others the result of paparazzi snooping. "You may know of her brother, Lex, who went off the rails a while back and now she's stuck running the family corporation. She's auctioning off her father's inheritance to stabilize her finances. Think of it as karmic payback for her brother’s numerous crimes."

"A Luthor?" Alex said. "Any chance Lena comes after us for some very creative revenge if she finds out what we've done to her?"

Veronica brought a napkin to the corner of her mouth before answering, "She's looking to dispose of the paintings anyways, so she shouldn't hold it personally against us. The insurance company will pay out the claim, so Lena will get her money one way or another. That's the good news. The bad news is that from our preliminary observations, Lena is an absolute nerd with no social life, so we're going to have a hell of a time inserting someone into her routine to find out where she has the paintings stashed and what security systems she has in play.

"Our one ray of sunshine is the Luthor gala in a few months’ time where she'll be forced to socialize for a change. I've secured us four invitations, so the plan is to engineer a meeting between Lena and one of you there if we can't figure out a way to approach her beforehand. Lena will probably sic her army of private investigators on whoever tries to get close to her, so ideally, it'll be Kara who has a squeaky-clean record. Psi is the 'person of interest' in far too many bank robberies, and the less said about Livewire, the better."

"We'll be acting as Ms. Cardigan's wingmen?" Livewire said with a snigger.

"So what, have them meet cute like bumping Lena into Kara so Lena spills a drink on her?" Alex offered.

"If that's your best idea of how to meet people, I was right to suggest Kara as the point person on this task," Veronica answered. Alex fumed as she chomped down hard onto her chopsticks. "I was thinking she would just go up to Lena and make a pass at her."

"I'll figure something out on my own, but thanks for the words of advice," Kara replied. Her mind was already running through potential scenarios. "If Lena's moved to a new city to put her life in order, she's probably more interested in a friend than a one-time hookup."

"If fake identities won't survive her private investigators, how do we get Kara out once the job is over if she’s plunging in as herself?" Alex asked.

"We'll make sure your sister has an air tight alibi when the theft happens and has no reason for Lena to suspect her. How she extricates herself from Lena's life afterward is up to her."

"What will you be doing during all this? You said you only had four invitations to the gala," Alex countered again.

Veronica lips twitched between a frown and an indulgent smile. "I'm not a thief, I just assemble them. Call me if you need anything, but I want to empower you all to devise your own way to snare Lena Luthor and her paintings. Shall we cheers to the start of a successful venture?"

Psi and Livewire raised their glasses. Kara gave a nod of agreement to Alex, so the Danvers sisters joined in on the toast to taking on Lena Luthor for a $10 million windfall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title comes from the song “Nobody,” by Mitski.


	2. Scope the Target

The barista had begun loudly stacking chairs atop the tables around Kara, and Lena had yet to leave the L Corp offices for the night. Kara hit save on her writing assignment and gathered up her handwritten drafts before hustling out the door to continue the stakeout in the car. Stifling a yawn, she pulled out a spiral notebook of the group's comments from the past two weeks. Alex scribbled in a chicken scratch, Livewire had spilled something onto her pages, Psi wrote in clear block letters while Kara had a looping cursive script.

Lena worked hellish hours and only deviated from the route between L Corp and her apartment for runs to the airport, which gave them few opportunities to probe her personality. Newspaper articles on the Luthors highlighted her father or brother in the headline while relegating her to a one-line quote typically five paragraphs in. Trying to make sense of the aftermath of Lex's meltdown, magazine and newspaper editors had commissioned profiles on the heir to L Corp, but Lena had declined all interview requests. The press statements released since her takeover had been doused in PR speak. Kara pulled out the photos of Lena again trying to uncover any clues she might have missed.

Psi knocked on the passenger side window and pulled open the door. "Shift change. How's everything going?" she asked as she slipped off her motorcycle jacket and tossed it along with her helmet into the back seat.

"Same old, same old. The only insight I have on how to get close to Lena is that she's a workaholic, so maybe I should staple email printouts to my gala dress," Kara responded as she passed Psi a travel mug of coffee just the way Psi liked it. "So why rob banks? I've been wondering that since Veronica mentioned it."

"Allegedly."

"Fine. If you _were_ to steal from a bank, why would you do it?"

"Because it's where they keep the money," Psi offered. 

Kara chuckled. "Any alleged tips of the trade you care to pass along? You don’t have to worry about me turning up as your competition. I’m genuinely curious."

"Don't be greedy. Stroll inside without drawing attention, pass the demand note to the teller, and walk away with the few thousand dollars of loose bills they keep at the counter. Don't mess with guns and don't even think about holding up the tellers at the other counters, let alone the vault. Keep it simple, and it'll be a long time before you get caught, but the cops will catch you eventually if you're on the grind long enough. $2 million is a good start for my retirement account. Any advice on how to do what you do?"

"You're probably timing the seconds of all your interactions in your day job, but in my experience, conversations need room to breathe. During a lull in a conversation, the other person might just be gathering the right words to continue their train of thought rather than waiting for me to speak, so I wait an extra beat before I jump in with whatever I have to say.” 

"I'll have to keep that one in mind," Psi said after a pause.

The two women sat in silence keeping their eyes on the lobby doors and garage entrance across the street. Kara was scheduled to leave the stakeout to Psi, but she wanted to at least glimpse Lena today before calling it a night. She gazed through the coffee shop's glass walls at the closing staff mopping the floor. She thought out loud, "I know Lena's trying to raise cash, but do you think she would clean her own apartment after a 16-hour day? I've seen photos of her office from the press clippings—she likes things spotless and organized."

"She probably pays someone to come by to maintain the apartment," Psi answered. The two thieves raised their eyebrows at each other at the insight.

 

 

 

Psi feigned interest in subletting an apartment unit in Lena's building and reported back on her reconnaissance. The elevators required a pass card to access, but the management issued extra badges for cleaning services. They started making calls around town to housekeeping services starting from those with the most expensive quotes and going down the list.

"Hi, is this National City Cleaners?...Hello, Andrea, how's your day going?...Happy Friday to you too. This is Emily, Lena Luthor's assistant. I wanted to confirm a cleaning session Miss Luthor has scheduled...Luthor with an O-R...Right, Wednesdays at 10am," Kara said as she pumped her arms in triumph. The other three members of the crew looked up from their own cold calls. "Can we cancel the session two weeks from now? Miss Luthor will be out of the country so not much use in someone coming in to clean...That's perfect, Andrea. Thank you so much!"

High-fiving the crew in succession, Kara said to Alex, "You ready to clean an apartment?"

 

 

 

Alex and Kara stood on the sidewalk a block from Lena's apartment building dressed in jeans and T-shirts while carrying cleaning supplies in caddies. Livewire had swiped the building badges from Lena's normal cleaning crew, and Alex had made counterfeits before Livewire returned the originals. Alex asked Livewire, "Are you sure Lena's gone for the day?"

"I'm positive. Some traffic cop was giving me grief about parking in a loading zone, but I saw her car leave," she answered.

"Are you sure because it sounds like you were distracted?"

"Excuse me for trying to talk my way out of leaving a paper trail of parking tickets while we case the mark, but I saw the car leave. Plus, when has she ever not followed her schedule? The woman's a machine." Livewire retorted.  

Alex scowled, but the two sisters set off for Lena's home all the same. Alex said, "Let's go over the plan one more time."

"This is purely a scouting mission since we have no better leads, so no heroics. Keep my head down as we look for intel. Even if the painting is staring us in the face in the living room, we'll come back for it at a later time when we've studied the security system and have a way to transport it out," Kara recited for the third time that morning. Striding through the revolving doors, they gave a nod to the security guard seated behind the counter as they made their way to the elevator banks. The card reader blinked green as the elevator door chimed open.

Stepping inside, Kara wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans during the delay it took before the elevator began its ascent. She then held her breath as if they might become stuck between floors on the way up. She let out a whistle as the private elevator revealed the open floor plan of the penthouse. Sun streamed in from the east facing floor-to-ceiling windows. A white leather sofa sat atop dark mahogany floors. The smell of fresh cut flowers drifted from the centerpiece at the dining room table. Stainless steel everything gleamed from the kitchen.

Alex said, "How about I start with the hallway on the right, and you—"

*ACHOO*

Kara and Alex stared at each other with mouths open in horror as the sound of a nose being blown emerged from one of the rooms.

"Do we bail?" Alex hissed. "I'm going to strangle Livewire the next time we see her. Lena's left for the office my ass."

"What if Lena's expecting the cleaning service and calls the company when she realizes they never showed?" Kara said in a hush. "I think we roll with it."

Kara walked toward the sneeze’s source while Alex mouthed obscenities at her. Kara knocked on the open door and peeked into the darkened room. "National City Cleaners," she announced.

In contrast to Kara's previous visuals of a put together business executive, she saw Lena Luthor sitting cross-legged in an office chair with a comforter draped around her shoulders like a shawl. She wore shapeless sweats with her lanky hair let down and her usual shade of red lipstick absent from her lips. Crumpled up tissues lay around her desk. Lena looked up from the computer monitor and exclaimed, "I totally forgot you were supposed to come today. Sorry about the mess."

"We've seen worse, and it's what you pay us for."

Alex pulled at her hair out of sight in the living room. Lena said, "I was supposed to head into work today, but I took an early morning conference call from home, and my assistant told me to not come in when she heard my voice, which sounds far worse than it actually feels. She even instructed my driver to take the day off when he'd already arrived to pick me up."

"No worries," Kara answered. "We'll just do our thing."

"Thank you so much," Lena said as she focused back on the computer monitor.

Kara regrouped with Alex, saying, "We'll probably have to clean her place or Lena will get suspicious, but she's glued to her work. Let's just do what we can and get out of here."

Alex grit her teeth but nodded her consent to the plan. She kept watch on the doorway to the home office as she dusted the fireplace mantel while Kara headed into the bedroom. Inhaling through her nose and out her mouth, Kara controlled her breathing to force her pulse to calm down. Her ears perked at the hum of the central heating and the tapping of the mechanical keyboard from the office across the way. Pulling open a dresser drawer, she checked between wool sweaters and yoga pants for any clues regarding the paintings. Finding nothing, she tapped the drawer bottom for the sound of a hidden compartment and then cycled through the rest of the dresser.

Alex's back stiffened, and she gave off a warning throat clear as Lena padded into the living room. Kara rushed over to yank the bedsheets off in a show of making the bed, but Lena had only walked into the kitchen to microwave a mug of water. A quick scan underneath the pillows brought up crumpled sheets of technical schema Lena had doodled on in a half-awake state going by the jagged scrawls. Kneeling down to tuck a fresh linen set into a corner, Kara checked the bed frame’s underside but only found a few strands of hair which she swept out.

As Lena's footsteps signaled her return to her computer, Kara searched the closet without success for a pocket with a mislaid receipt or envelope that might have held the key to everything. Moving onto the master bathroom, she rustled through the medicine cabinet and peeked inside the toilet tank in between scrubbing down the clawfoot bathtub. She reconvened with Alex in the living room, hiding their conversation over the whir of a vacuum, before scouring the rest of the apartment. They had mapped out the floor plan in case they needed to return but had nothing to point to where the paintings had been stored or clues about Lena's profile aside from the fact that the apartment seemed hardly lived in. The last room to examine was the one Lena was currently occupying.

"Follow my lead?" Kara asked.

"You're going to give me a heart attack."

Kara headed into the kitchen to start boiling water in a kettle. She poured the steaming liquid into a mug, adding a tablespoon of honey followed by a generous squeeze from a fresh cut lemon. She placed the drink on the coffee table and tapped her knuckles again on the open door to Lena's office. "We're almost wrapped up. I brewed some honey lemon tea for your throat if you want to hang out on the couch while we take care of things in here. Some vitamin C and D will do you good."

"You didn't have to do that, but a break does sound divine right now," Lena replied as she massaged her eyes. She shed the comforter from her shoulders and strolled out to the living room. Alex slipped into the office as Kara kept an eye on Lena under the guise of rinsing the paring knife used to slice the lemon. As Lena stretched out on the sun warmed sofa, her stomach gurgled.

"Have you had anything to eat today?" Kara called out.

"Does an old fortune cookie I found under a stack of presentation printouts count?" Lena replied as she hid her face behind a sip from the mug.

"Let me fix you up something," Kara said as she opened the refrigerator doors.

"The tea was more than enough," Lena protested. "I'll order something on my phone. Between this cold and all the work I have to get through, I momentarily forgot about my appetite. I can feed myself."

"No trouble at all. I've always wanted to cook in such an amazing kitchen, and I see you already have chicken stock in the freezer, so it'll only take 10 minutes to heat up."

"I do?" Lena asked. "It must have been the personal chef I have on retainer. I told myself I would eat healthier meals at home when I moved to National City, but I'm sad to say his talents have gone underutilized with all the time I spend at the office."

"What's keeping you there so late?" Kara said as she eased a frozen block of stock into a steel pot. The burner below clicked to life in a burst of red and blue flames.

Lena paused to collect her thoughts before answering. "I'm probably spending too much time putting out fires and mucking around in the weedy details when I should be focusing on the bigger picture. Not to sound arrogant, but you do know who I am, right?"

"I saw the name on the client assignment list and looked up some articles on my phone before I drove over here—nothing but good coverage, of course," Kara said as she kept her eyes on the cutting board while she chopped celery, carrots, and a white onion.

"Of course," Lena said with a knowing smile.

Kara scooped the diced vegetables into a non-stick skillet splashed with olive oil and a few pinches of sea salt. "I hope when work eases up you get a chance to explore National City. I have a discounted annual membership to the modern art museum through my school, so I try to drop by whenever they have a new exhibit. There are amazing food trucks which pop up all the time. The beach is only a short drive away when I want to go for a jog away from the heat of the city. What's your perfect Saturday?"

Lena sipped at the tea. A curl of lemon peel bumped against her lips. "Is it bad to say sneaking into the office to get some work done without having to worry about calls interrupting me or email requests?"

At the scrunched up look on Kara's face, Lena relented, "Then waking up early for yoga followed by breakfast on an outside patio before the brunch mob shows up. Some shopping, followed by a spa session for a massage and soak in the steam room. I would need a nice, quiet dinner, preferably Italian, with a good bottle of wine. I’d close out the night with some light reading in bed before it gets too late."

"I can definitely recommend some great restaurants around the city," Kara said. The mellow aroma of the warming stock filled the kitchen. Kara mashed a garlic clove with the flat side of a knife and peeled off the skin. She minced the garlic to add to the skillet along with an additional dash of oil. The sizzle and smell of the vegetables brought Lena from the couch to the kitchen counter. Kara's lips flicked up into a smile. As the stock bubbled from a simmer to a boil, Kara scooped the skillet's glistening contents into the pot followed by a double handful of dried macaroni elbows. She set a timer on her phone. "Would you like some more tea?"

"No, thank you," Lena said. Kara began running the dirty dishes and utensils under the kitchen faucet. "I should be paying you a lot more."

"I'm actually covering a shift for a classmate who called in sick, so this might be the last time we see each other," Kara said with an exaggerated frown paired with a miming of tears. "If you really want to thank me, I work weeknights at the bar at the Conrad. I need someone to keep me company while I practice my cocktails. The first drink is on me, but only if you get some rest and show up feeling better."

Lena smiled in response as she ran her fingers through her hair in a belated attempt to put her locks in order. "The Conrad. Don't be surprised if I do show up."

Kara turned off the stove as her phone's timer beeped. She cracked fresh peppercorns into the pot and fished out a packet of oyster crackers from the cupboards. Alex exited from the office as Kara ladled the soup into a bowl. Kara listened to Lena hum in delight as the first spoonful warmed her up from her chest down to her fingertips. Kara clapped her hands on her hips to announce, "Don't forget to put the rest of the soup into the fridge after it's had a chance to cool down. And I hope to see you around."

Lena escorted the pair to the elevator door and thanked Kara again.

"You find anything good?" Kara asked Alex as they rode down.

"Nothing. She locked her computer, and Veronica's descriptions of her attention to security had me too paranoid to slip any surveillance devices into the room," Alex replied. "What was the chicken noodle soup and invitation to your work all about?"

"I needed to keep her focused on me while you searched her office and the gala plan wasn't going to work anymore as we originally had in mind. Lena's already seen my face, and I can't keep meeting her as the cleaning lady, so I had to figure out a way to re-orient our relationship."

"She saw you with your hair up and in glasses. Couldn't you try contacts and let your hair down at the gala?"

"I'm pretty good at disguises and that might have worked for a night, but long term, I don't know. Taking time to develop a relationship is more surefire than trying to force a magic night to happen when we’d be right up against the auction date. Plus, you should have seen me dicing the vegetables while talking to her," Kara said as she held out her right hand with the palm facing down. "Steady as a rock." 

"You're enjoying this way too much," Alex said as they exited the elevator. 

 

 

 

Lena checked that her lipstick was in place with a compact before stepping out of the car. She strode across the hotel lobby's tiled floor towards the bar situated in a side wing. She wore black slacks with a navy blouse and had pulled her hair into a bun. Lena scanned the room and the few patrons dressed in business casual attire on this Monday night. She herself had come straight from work informing Jess that she had to leave early without specifying a reason. Unbeknownst to her, the crew of thieves had caught on to this and given a heads up to Kara, who took the opportunity to check her teeth for any evidence of the spinach and artichoke dip she'd snacked on earlier.

Lena spotted Kara cleaning a rack of glasses behind the bar. "I like your bowtie," Lena said of the sky-blue accessory as she sidled into an empty barstool.

"I picked it out myself," Kara responded. "I hope you're feeling better, you certainly look better. What'll you have?"

"I did pretty well following your advice to rest up, so I'll let you choose the drink too."

Kara tapped a finger against her chin. "It's been a short sleeves and jeans sort of day, which is not uncommon in National City during the winter, so how about something refreshing after the mini heatwave? Let's go with a mint julep."

Kara pried open a plastic tub of fresh mint. She placed the leaves into a rocks glass with a teaspoon of fine sugar and muddled the ingredients together. She filled the glass with a spritz of seltzer water and a scoop of crushed ice. Turning her back to Lena, Kara picked out a bottle of bourbon from the glass case behind her. She poured in a generous serving before adding another sprig of mint to garnish. "To your health. Have you had a chance to see more of the city since we talked?"

"I really needed this," Lena said as she took a healthy pull from the cocktail. "No, this is the most I've seen outside my office or apartment since last week. Between getting better and catching up with work, I haven't had time for much else."

"I'm glad you thought of me then when you had a free moment in your schedule," Kara said as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "Is work treating you any better?"

Lena hummed as she considered her response. "I'm not sure if it's been better or if I'm finally acclimating to the rhythm of things. You mentioned you were covering a shift for a classmate. What do you study, if you don't mind me asking?"

"People in National City accept that everyone has a day job but they're always curious about what I _really_ do, like if I’m trying to make it as an actress, so I'm used to the question. I'm in the Journalism program at NCU."

The corner of Lena's lips curled upward into a half smile as she rubbed her fingers against the water condensing on the outside of the glass. "I've had a history with the press, so I hope you don't mind me clarifying that everything I've said is off the record?"

"Not at all. It makes me feel like I'm an actual reporter."

"Thank you. With that out of the way—my assistant was able to block off some free time on my calendar for this Friday night. I was browsing things to do in National City after you left and saw that Il Trovatore is playing at the opera house. I still need to thank you for the soup—"

"I was only cooking your ingredients in your kitchen," Kara interrupted.

"And it was far better than anything I could have put together or ordered," Lena said. "Going to the opera alone can be awkward, and I'm not sure if you have any interest in the theater, but would you want to go with me if you don't have class or work...?"

"I would love to!" Kara answered with a bright flash of a smile.

"I'm looking forward to it," Lena said as her whole body shifted in relief.

After Lena finished her drink and left, Kara texted Veronica. _What do you wear to the opera???!!!!_

Looking at Kara's message, Veronica figured a phone call would be easier to deal with than trying to suss out Kara's meaning by text. Kara took the call in the employee break room to explain the situation. "You can wear whatever you want to the opera. I once saw someone there in cargo shorts," Veronica said. Upon hearing the silence on the other end of the line, she continued, "If you want to dress to impress, come over to my apartment tomorrow, and we'll figure something out. I'll send you my address."

"Thank you!" Kara shouted, causing Veronica to hold her phone a good foot away from her ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Psi's response as to why she robs banks is apocryphally attributed to bank robber Willie Sutton.


	3. Run the Plan

Veronica opened the front door for Kara, who surveyed the one-bedroom apartment. It was smaller than she had imagined, but with a more lived in feel in comparison to Lena's place. Photos of Veronica and her presumed family hung on the wall, and dog-eared novels sat on a shelf. "Thanks for inviting me over. I wasn't sure you were actually going to give me your real address."

"I know where you live, so I figured it would put us on an even playing field," Veronica said. She was out of red, wearing white slacks with a peach blouse which covered up her ink aside from a serpent wrapped around her right forearm.

"I don't remember telling you my address."

"I'll drive. I scheduled a session with my personal shopper at Neiman Marcus," Veronica replied as she ignored Kara's remark. She grabbed her keys from a porcelain bowl by the door and led the way to the elevator. "Have you never attended the opera?"

"Opera wasn't really a thing in Midvale. Most of the kids preferred to hang out at the Dairy Queen, so my main impression of it is Bugs Bunny dressed as a Valkyrie. Am I going to even understand what's going on?"

"Il Trovatore is in Italian, but they'll project English subtitles on the screen. Look up the plot on Wikipedia, and you'll do fine."

The elevator opened onto an underground garage, where Veronica walked over to a Honda Civic hatchback from the nineties with a custom red paint job. "This was not what I was expecting you to be driving," Kara commented.

Veronica grinned as she slid into the driver's seat and leaned over to manually unlock Kara's passenger side door. She slipped off her heels as the engine rumbled to life. "The lease on my Range Rover expired recently, but I'm hardly ever in National City anymore so I haven't picked up another car yet. My father had a thing for Mercedes so that's what I took to my driver's ed classes and drove up through the end of my freshman year of college. I took the savings from my first summer internship to put a down payment on this girl."

Veronica patted the dash and pulled out a pair of sunglasses with ultra-thin frames from the glove compartment. She eased the car out of its parking spot and turned onto the streets. "I had it parked in the driveway as I tuned her up before heading back to school, which confused my dad and annoyed the HOA, but it was worth it when I'd take her cruising around town at night and meet up with other car heads to talk shop and race."

As they accelerated onto the freeway, Kara's right hand reached for something to grip. Only as Veronica shifted gears to weave into the fast lane did Kara recline into her seat to trust in Veronica's mastery over the car. "Is that where you met your first connections, cruising around?"

Veronica snorted. "No, that was just stupid shit I did when I was younger. My turning point, if you can call it that, occurred during the middle of my MBA program. I’d had one too many networking receptions with professionals in gray flannel suits and decided there had to be something more exciting in life. I bluffed a lot when I first started out, but I grew into the lies."

Veronica's personal shopper, Ashlee, greeted them as they stepped through the glass doors with a smile and an offer to grab something for them to drink. Kara was ushered off to a personal changing room, where a rack of dresses had already been prepared. Under the guise of inspecting the garments, Kara pulled out an eyebrow raising price tag which did not go unnoticed by Ashlee.  In a professional, yet friendly, manner, she asked about what price range Kara was comfortable with. The grad student waffled between the three figures in her checking account and the stack of hundreds secured in a Ziploc bag at the back of her freezer. Some of it had already gone towards rent money as she’d scaled back her shifts at the bar after this job started seeming like a real thing, but the weight of the remaining cash burning a hole in her pocket won out.

Even then, Kara had only planned on buying a set of formal wear for the opera date. While trying on a sleeveless blue minidress with a gold sash, however, Ashlee returned from the shop floor with a pair of black strapless heels and matching handbag. Kara didn't even want to think about the cost of the purse even if she did daydream about accessorizing with something more fashionable than a laptop bag. Then she thought about day dresses for a lazy Sunday amble through the modern art museum. And since she was here, she might as well pick a cocktail dress in case Lena also invited her to the Luthor gala. Ashlee was more than happy to oblige as she got a handle on Kara's tastes and sizing.

Veronica meanwhile had plunked down onto a sofa with a sparkling water and proceeded to glue herself to her phone. As Ashlee walked to and from Kara's dressing room, she would drop by to show off an item or two that she had been 'saving' for Veronica, who was soon lured into a fitting room with her own rack of clothes to try on.

Two hours later at the register, the full extent of the shopping session had Kara hesitating before inserting her credit card into the chip reader. She had the cash to pay for everything and the prospect of a monster reward on the horizon, but broke college student habits died hard. Veronica one upped her as she stepped in with an Amex platinum card to pay for both of their purchases. As they exited the store, she said, "I'll take it out of your cut when we sell the painting."

"Golly, thanks," Kara replied.

"Anytime, girlfriend." Veronica said with a wide smile that somehow reached her eyes while dripping with sarcasm. On the ride back to her apartment, she said, "You've heard bits and pieces of my story. How do a pair of sisters from Midvale get so prominent in this criminal world of ours that you and Alex got onto my radar?"

Over the hum of the engine, Kara considered how much to reveal, wondering if Veronica had shared her own past and taken her shopping as a way to get Kara to reciprocate. She bit her cheek in annoyance at having to take such things into consideration. "Alex and I got our start in counterfeit wine."

"Midvale sounds like a real hard place to grow up."

Kara waited for Veronica's peals of laughter to die down before elaborating. "Midvale's a small town, but it's within driving distance of a lot of wineries which attract tourists more interested in drinking their way through a weekend getaway than refining their palate. Alex found a summer job at a wine store where the owner paid her under the table in cash for maintaining a duplicate set of books to cheat the IRS. She was soon helping him refill empty bottles of premium vintages with something cheaper that approximated the original taste or even outright forging labels to apply onto blank bottles. Some wines are rare enough that even deep pocketed oenophiles might only taste them a few times over the years, so there’s a low chance they’d detect something was off.

"Alex referred me for a waitressing job at the store's tasting events, and I was promoted to selling customers on the ‘reserves’ we had in the back. We always had enough food on our plates, but Eliza was raising both of us on her own, and it was nice to buy new clothes for school without having to ask for an allowance. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. Outside of the tourist season, we picked up some skills that got us invited to bigger jobs once we left Midvale. Again, it felt good not having to draw down all of my student loans to pay for school, but the money didn't matter as much as the exhilaration of knowing something the marks didn’t no matter how rich or powerful they seemed. Then Alex got busy with med school, and I had internships at the local paper along with my upper division undergrad courses, so we moved on."

"But you're back in it now," Veronica said.

Kara nodded. "I guess we are." They passed the rest of the car ride in silence. When she returned to her apartment, Kara unwrapped the blue minidress from its box and clipped off the price tag. She tried on the whole ensemble and admired herself in the mirror.

 

 

 

Kara arrived early at Lena's apartment for another opportunity to look around. Stepping into the living room from the elevator, she found Lena seated on the couch strapping on her heels. She wore a black sleeveless dress with a pleated hem. Lena had decorated since Kara last visited, having hung a Jackson Pollock like drip painting on the living room wall. _Wait_. She recognized that work from the auction brochure. _This was a Jackson Pollock._

"It belonged to my parents," Lena said as she stood beside Kara with her arms crossed to look at the painting. "I'm not sure if my father really liked it or if he was merely following the advice of the art gallery curator to snatch it up, but he displayed it all the same in the den of our winter lodge. I was never one for skiing, so while everyone was out on the slopes, I would curl up on the couch under this painting as I read through the library. Now it's going to auction. I would prefer the collection went to a museum where I could check in on them, but in the likely case private buyers step forward, I wanted to enjoy some of it in my own home while I can, very much against the advice of my insurance company."

"Why sell?" Kara said. She regained her bearings in time to capture a quick video of the painting on her cell phone as Lena retrieved her handbag from the kitchen counter.

"You've read the papers," Lena said with a dark chuckle. "Lex messed up, and creditors like it more when I pay the bills than when I hold onto sentimentality. Shall we head out?"

"Do you mind if I use your washroom real quick?"

"Down the hall. Well, you know where it is."

Kara's gaze swept over the canvas sized packages lying about the rest of the apartment. Once inside the bathroom, Kara sent the picture of the Pollock to Alex's dummy account on Snapchat along with a message. _Auction painting in Lena's apartment! Don't see the Rothko!! Heading out to opera now!!!_

She flushed the toilet and ran the faucet before returning to the living room. The phone seemed to pulse out to Kara from her purse on the drive over to the theater as she wondered if Alex had reached back out for clarification or to give further instruction. Kara constructed a ready excuse that her friend was expecting puppies if she wanted to check her messages through the night but decided to devote her full attention to the date. She also didn't need Lena catching sight of an incriminating message.

The usher led them down to their seats a few rows from the stage. Kara peered down into the orchestra pit where the musicians were warming up and then leaned back into the velvet seat to take in the high ceiling. The ambient noise grew louder as the audience arrived to fill out the empty rows—white haired gentlemen in sports jackets accompanying ladies who wore ascots and broaches, alongside young professionals in designer jeans and Tory Burch flats.

Under the guise of silencing her phone, she checked for any notifications, but her sister hadn't reverted back. Kara drew in a deep breath that filled her chest to bursting. On the exhale, she stuffed her phone back into the bottom of her bag. Kara had her part to play tonight and would have to trust in Alex to take charge of the information she had passed along. She skimmed through the playbill to occupy her hands until the start of the show. "The animal shelter I volunteer at has an advertisement here."

Lena looked over. "What do you do at the shelter?"

"Mostly greeting visitors and filing paperwork for a few hours on the weekend," Kara replied. "If they need an extra hand during the week when I'm between class, I'll jump in to help take care of the animals. Even if my apartment complex did allow pets, I'd feel bad leaving a dog in their crate all day so this is my opportunity to get in the weekly recommended amount of cuteness. If you ever need a pick me up, I have plenty of adorable videos to share."

"I'll remember that the next time I'm in a two-hour conference meeting," Lena said.

"Can I confess that this is my first time at the opera, like any opera? I feel bad that I'm the supposed native and you had to show me this side of the city."

"I'm glad I could do something for you," Lena said as the house lights dimmed. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities to one up me."

The curtains rose to reveal Renaissance Spain in the midst of civil war. Kara's eyes flitted between the stage and the projected translation as the songs washed over the opera house. At times her mind wandered away from the subtitles to focus on the emotion on the actors' faces and appreciate their voices as instruments of their own as they dealt with love and revenge. From the glow of the stage, Lena's reactions filtered in through the corner of Kara's eyes.

During intermission, Kara unlocked her phone as she waited in line for the bathroom. She angled her body to block the screen from any bystanders. Alex had responded back. _Not doing anything tonight. Enjoy the rest of the show._ Kara put the phone away with a loud sigh that drew a few stares. Warmth returned to her anxiety wracked fingers as they received the chemical message from her nervous system about Alex's reprieve. She found her seat again and perused the playbill for the actor biographies along with their messages of thanks to their family and friends. Lena re-appeared holding two plastic cups of white wine as the lights dimmed for the second half.

Without having to worry about phantom vibrations from her silenced phone, Kara relaxed into her seat as her senses narrowed down to the tragedy on the stage. The audience members left her field of vision. The sounds of the orchestra pit drifted into her ears like through a dream. The lights rose up again upon the final death, and Kara's hands went numb from the rounds of applause raining down on the performers as they came up for the curtain call. Lena passed over a handkerchief for Kara's smudged mascara. Kara batted Lena's shoulder and told her not to laugh as she dabbed at her eyes.

The crowd shuffled against each other as they filed into the aisles to exit the opera house. Lena's car arrived far too quickly to pick them up from the curbside to transport them back to the real world. As the town car inched its way through downtown traffic, Kara inquired, "I know it's cold, but would you be in the mood for authentic National City ice cream?"

"Sure, where to?"

"Right there," Kara replied, pointing to a Rite Aid sign jutting out of a strip mall parking lot.

"From a pharmacy?"

"It's Thrifty Ice Cream, and it’s amazing." Lena directed the driver to turn in. Kara and Lena strolled through the automatic doors and into the brightly lit store. A standalone ice cream counter occupied the far wall with thirty plus ice cream cartons sitting underneath the glass display case. Even though Kara had tried every flavor, she asked for samples all the same. She settled on a double scoop of mint chocolate chip in a cone and also paid for Lena's scoop of strawberry in a cup. They sat outside on the metal chairs enjoying the treat trying not to dribble on their opera dresses.

"I read an article on Bloomberg today quoting your creditors being worried. How are you doing?" Kara said as she licked at the cone. "Sorry, I was getting my daily fix of the news and couldn't help myself once I saw the headline."

Lena swirled the plastic spoon in her cup and brought a half-melted bite up to her lips. A tart chunk of frozen strawberry hit her tongue. "Fine and not fine. Worst case scenario— everyone keeps treating the Luthor name like toxic sludge, and we'd have to declare bankruptcy before the end of the year. I'd lose control of the company to our bondholders, but it's not the type of bankruptcy where the bank forecloses on my apartment. It's the type where all my executives keep their fat bonuses because it's the only thing keeping them from abandoning ship to more stable opportunities.

"I would tighten my belt, so to speak, by cutting the country club memberships and liquidating more of my inheritance, but I could send feelers through my professional network to land a corporate role somewhere else. What keeps me up at night is what will happen to my employees as the creditors try to restructure the company into profitability; I still receive memos and reports from engineers who were around when my father would take me on tours of the research labs after school. Failing to turn around the Luthor legacy would sting, but a bruised ego will pass like the sentimentality of wanting to retain some _very_ valuable artworks because of my personal connections to them."

"Tell me more about the paintings," Kara said.

Lena stared off into the middle distance at the passing traffic. She set aside her empty ice cream cup on the table and crumpled a napkin in her fingertips. "They were one of the first things I noticed when I was brought into the family. I was too young to fully appreciate them, but I understood they were very expensive and also displayed out in the open for everyone to appreciate. They used to hang this Rothko in the foyer until a drunken dinner party guest nearly put their elbow through it, so it was moved to outside my father's study. You could always find him there in his monogrammed pajamas on Sunday mornings, sipping on his black coffee and tearing off pieces of buttered toast. My nanny would walk me up to the threshold of the study before pausing to brush my hair and check my dress for any frayed threads one last time. I would stare at those dreadful blocks of colors as she held me still and then brought me inside the study where my father would quiz me on the newspaper's business section. A terrible memory to hold onto for $45 million, but it was a part of my childhood for better or worse."

"There's that quote—everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle," Kara said as she bit down into the last of the cone. "I wouldn't go complaining to any reporters about losing your status as a billionaire heiress since they'll make you sound like an entitled tool, but it doesn't mean your feelings aren't valid."

"Yes, good thing I only spend my time chatting with a journalism student instead of full-time journalists," Lena said with a smirk. “I shudder to think about our relationship once you graduate and find a job.”

"I'm on your side, so that doesn't count. What's the best-case scenario for L Corp?"

"I prove to my clients and suppliers how superior I am to my competitors so that I wash away their memories of how much Lex screwed up. That was also off the record," Lena replied as she pointed a finger at Kara. "I sounded like I have a god complex. I'm calling for a topic change."

"I find your sense of resolve admirable, but fine, have it your way." Kara said. Despite having finished dessert, Kara started rattling off all the mostly dining related items she still had to introduce Lena too like Korean fried chicken in K-Town. East National City had the best taco stands in the metro area. A little bit inland, she knew of this Armenian place that served to-die-for roasted chicken in pita pockets with savory dollops of fluffy garlic sauce. If the weather warmed up, they should go for a stroll along the riverfront.

Lena nodded along unable to keep a grin off her face until a gust of wind chilled her arms and prompted her to check the time on her phone. Kara leaned in for a kiss, tasting a hint of the strawberry ice cream lingering on Lena’s lips. "Sorry, I wanted to make sure I got my goodbye kiss before you called it a night."

Lena eyebrows darted up before she cradled Kara's neck to pull her in for a longer kiss. "No need to apologize. Save another one for me the next time we see each other, and I'll call it even."

After Kara picked up her car from the parking garage at Lena's apartment building, she stopped off at her place only long enough to slip off her heels for flats and unzipper her dress for a pair of jeans and a light sweater. She mentally relived the date on the drive over to Alex's before clearing her thoughts by catching up on the news via podcast.

Alex opened the door with a movie already selected on Netflix and a bottle of wine ready to be uncorked. "Two buck chuck," Kara commented as she plopped down onto the couch. "We really haven't struck it rich yet."

"Let's save it for after the movie." Alex shuffled blueprints and maps of getaway routes into manila folders. She poured out the wine into two glasses and set out a bowl of popcorn. Kara scooted over on the couch to make room for Alex and grabbed a fistful of popcorn as the action flick started. From their prior jobs, the sisters had discovered that wearing masks of deception suffocated their sense of self over time, so they found time to let their guard down around each other to anchor their true identities.

Over the end credits, Kara said, "Eliza figured out how to text. She asked me if we’re planning to head home for the long weekend."

"We can stay a night or two, but I don't want to spend the entire weekend in Midvale, so maybe we can drive out Saturday afternoon and start back for National City after breakfast on Monday?" Alex answered over her shoulder as she padded into the kitchen to store the half empty wine bottle into the refrigerator. "How did it go tonight?"

"Sounds like a plan. I'll let Eliza know," Kara said as she released a throw pillow from her embrace. "We enjoyed ourselves at the opera and then chatted about her L Corp anxieties over Thrifty ice cream. The Rothko is definitely on her mind. There's a good chance it'll end up in her apartment soon before she hands it off to the auction house. What happened after I sent that text?"

"With you hanging out with Lena, it was supposed to be our night off from surveillance and planning. I had to scramble to get on a four-way call with everyone else. Livewire was drinking at some dive bar with a live band blasting in the background so it took forever for her to find somewhere quiet. Psi had to step away from an underground poker game. Veronica was thankfully only at dinner but gave us lip for interrupting her tasting menu.

"Psi proposed heading straight over to Lena's apartment and grabbing what we could, damn the security cameras and lack of an untraceable getaway car. Livewire was leaning that way too, but Veronica put her foot down to say the deal wouldn't go through without the Rothko. I met up with Psi and Livewire in person afterward to start planning this out the right way, assuming the painting will arrive at Lena's apartment. Hitting the auction house will be Plan B. You're on full time Lena duty to uncover more information. When's the next time you're seeing her?"

"I'll shoot Lena a message tomorrow morning to schedule something. I was thinking Italian, someplace where they make their pasta in-house." Kara started drafting an emoji filled text, but slid the phone into her jean pocket before hitting send. "How are Psi and Livewire treating you?"

"Nothing I can't handle. Are you okay to drive? I can get some extra pillows and blankets so you can spend the night."

"I'm good," Kara said as she stood up to stretch. She hugged Alex goodnight and drove back to her apartment. Curled up in the comfort of her bed, Kara started reading from a Rothko biography she'd picked up from the university bookstore. He eschewed the distractions of concrete images in his work to pursue a primal connection to the viewer using only color and brushstroke. In pursuing this ideal, he preferred large canvases that would engulf the audience's senses and recommended his works be appreciated at the same distance he painted them. He was also known to walk away from engagements if the gallery lighting did not match the conditions of creation in his studio. She woke up the next morning with the text laying open atop her stomach. She used the receipt as a bookmark and reached over to the nightstand to check the time on her phone. Lena had already messaged her back.

_I've been thinking about how much you've set down roots in National City and made this place your home. I wanted to give back and do the same._

_My family has donated enough to dedicate the local children's hospital in our name, but I've never volunteered my time there to get a sense for the facility._

_I'm reading books for the children there next Saturday. Are you free to join me? We can grab lunch afterward, if you'd like._

A smile grew on Kara's face though it wasn’t until she had hopped into the shower that she realized she didn’t know if it was the mask or herself brimming with joy. She turned up the heat and began scrubbing away at the hollow feeling inside her chest.


	4. The Plan Goes Wrong

Kara continued her routine of arriving early at Lena's place for their dates to examine the apartment. Of course, it only took a quick glance through the rooms to prove out that the Rothko had yet to arrive, so Kara would fill the time waiting for Lena to get ready by preparing something for them to drink. She'd been weening Lena off whiskey neats and on this particular night had been giddy for her to try out a new brand of tonic water. Kara could talk at length about how the sweetness of mass market brands defeated the point of tonic water. She called out a hello to Lena who was in the bedroom changing as she walked past the elevator doors.

The painting in the living room passed into Kara's peripheral vision as she entered the kitchen area and again as she closed to the refrigerator door with a bottle of vodka in hand except that it was no longer the Pollock hanging above the mantle. The Rothko had replaced it and signaled the end of Kara's time with Lena. After the hours spent staring at the auction booklet's slick reproduction and reading about the artist's life, the sensations washed out from Kara's body as she grappled with occupying the same physical space as the work. She'd witnessed Alex measuring out a nearly 30 square feet facsimile on her living room floor, but seeing it dominate the room in person almost staggered her. Waves of despair wrung out from the layers of paint pressed against each other. Kara set the vodka down on the coffee table as she realized the painting had pulled her from the kitchen to only a few feet away.

"My assistant just emailed me to say that the restaurant messed up our dinner reservation, something about an overbooked birthday party. They can get us in at 8:45 or we can do something else." Lena said as she walked in with her phone in hand. Finding Kara absorbed by the painting, she commented, "Perfect timing on your part. The Pollock went off to the auction house this morning as this one arrived by courier."

"It's definitely something," Kara said as she turned to Lena and adjusted her glasses. "I think I'd starve if we had to wait until 8:45. What else did you have in mind?"

Lena wrapped her arms around Kara's torso and nuzzled into her neck. "I was thinking we could have a quiet night in for once and make dinner ourselves. I haven't had your home cooking since the chicken soup when we first met, not counting your wonderful cookie deliveries to my office since then. You're always teasing me about not knowing my way around a stove, which I continue to contend is highly overrated, but I'm willing to give it a shot with you as my cooking instructor."

Kara grinned as she returned the hug and breathed in the scent of Lena's minty shampoo. "We could make spaghetti in a tomato sauce. I think your pasta maker is still at my apartment though."

"The one you asked to borrow before I even got a chance to use it?"

"It was gathering dust on your shelf while whispering to me about all the great spaghetti and fettuccine it could make in the right hands. Now that I've tried it out a few times, I can show you how to draw out its full potential when I bring it back." 

"It's a hand crank and a roller—I think I could have figured it out," Lena said. "Let’s cook dinner at your place then. We can grab all the ingredients we need from my pantry or stop off at the grocery store on the way over. We're always meeting up at my place or the restaurant that I don't think I've even seen your apartment."

Kara blinked. Alex kept any documents related to the heist in her floor safe when they weren't in use, so it should have been safe to bring Lena over. _Still..._ "I would love to, but I've haven't cleaned up in days."

"I promise I won't judge," Lena said as she stretched up for a kiss. Kara may have moaned slightly as she acquiesced to the request.

 

 

 

"You're living a lot better than the graduate students I knew back in school," Lena said as she entered Kara's home.

"It's rent controlled," Kara yelled out as she scampered about gathering up dirty laundry to throw into the bedroom hamper. She tossed her cell phone atop her bed. Even if Alex heard about the Rothko tonight, they wouldn't make their move for a few days.

"My father once cornered the mayor of Metropolis at a cocktail reception to give him his thoughts on rent control," Lena said as she gazed at the National City skyline through Kara's windows. She walked over to inspect the spines on the bookshelf as Kara began scrubbing the dishes in the sink. In this age of web pages and e-books, Lena nurtured a curiosity for what people held onto in analog form.

After pre-measuring and weighing the ingredients into various cups, Kara called out to Lena to join her in the kitchen where she handed over a well-worn apron. Lena cracked eggs into the bowl of flour. After picking out the eggshells, she used a fork to mix the ingredients together into a mass of dough. "Now we have to knead it, so stick your hands in there," Kara said.

Lena looked like she'd been told to go play in the mud. "You're enjoying this."

"I'm teaching you how to cook like you asked me to. Kneading is necessary to develop the gluten strands to give the pasta its texture. You should’ve known that as a scientist," Kara said as she powdered Lena's hands in extra flour. She guided Lena's fingers into the moist mixture to fold it into a ball and showed her how to press it flat by throwing weight behind the heel of her hand. They repeated the motions until the dough formed up into an elastic sphere.

"We'll let that sit while we work on the sauce," Kara said as they washed their hands of the residual dough. Kara next demonstrated how to hold a knife as they minced garlic cloves and an onion. Lena scooped the vegetables into a skillet sitting over a medium flame and began stirring. Once the onions shimmered translucently, they opened a large can of diced tomatoes and mixed it altogether with a few dashes of sea salt. Leaving the sauce to simmer after a taste test, Kara cut the rested pasta dough into quarters and flattened the portions out again with a roller. Lena fed the pieces into the pasta maker as Kara cranked away. The bundles of noodles went for a quick dip into boiling water before heading directly into the tomato sauce. They finished it off with grated parmesan.

"Next time, we can get really fancy with fresh tomatoes and sliced mushrooms," Kara said. Her features buried the internal wince at the thought of a next time. They plated their food and took their places at the dining room table.

Lena twirled a fork and took a bite of the al dente pasta. "This is nice," Lena said.

"Just nice?"

"I mean us sitting down for a meal together. When I moved here for a fresh start, I had planned on burying myself in work and fading into the background of a city where I had no pesky attachments to other people. I imagined my real life would only restart when I pushed through to daylight on the other side of L Corp's public relations nightmare, but I appreciate having someone outside of work to confide in."

"While we're being honest," Kara said as she reached over to take Lena’s hand, "before all meeting you, I spent most of my time either at work or class. I still do, but you’ve added a much-needed spark to my days, so thanks for popping into my life too." From there, Kara guided the rest of the night's conversation in no particular direction. She had all the information she'd needed on the painting.

After dinner, Kara scrubbed the dishes while Lena rinsed them off. They settled on the couch where Kara pulled up a homework assignment on her laptop she needed to submit before the end of the night. She also opened up Spotify as she’d been going through 2018’s Best Albums lists to discover new music. While Kara typed away on the keyboard, songs from Mitski’s newest album pulsed through the earbuds the two women shared between them at the moment.

Lena rested her head against Kara’s shoulder splitting her attention between the music and Kara’s agony as she searched for the right word to put on the page. She’d paraphrased for Lena the words of a recently deceased columnist, Russell Baker, that writing was a pleasure but it was always work to him. Used to dashing off a dozen emails before her morning coffee but spending all night picking over schematics, Lena watched Kara manipulate the same paragraph into a dozen different configurations.  

Later that evening as Kara drove over to Alex’s apartment, she pictured Lena's pale jade eyes as they kissed goodnight in the lobby of Lena’s apartment. She didn’t turn to podcasts to distract herself this time.

Kara found Alex reviewing map printouts on the couch dressed in black running pants and a grey tank top. Kara plopped down horizontally on the couch, resting her feet across Alex's thighs. Her sister pushed her off without looking up from the highlighted papers. "Do you have your gym bag with you?" Alex asked.

"It's in the trunk of my car, but my belly is still too full of pasta for whatever you have in mind."

"Your stomach might be full, but we need to keep our minds clear."

Kara groaned as she got back up to put on her shoes. She returned shortly and changed in the bathroom into running shorts and a T-shirt. They headed down to the apartment complex's gym, where Alex warmed up on the treadmill with a brisk walk. Kara pulled her hair back into a ponytail and put in her earbuds as she pedaled on a stationary bike at the lowest resistance level. The music in her ears was punctuated by the pounding of Alex’s soles on the treadmill as she sprinted in two-minute bursts followed by a short cooldown. Sweat collected across Alex’s back, though she optimized her oxygen intake with long, slow breaths.

About twenty minutes into the workout, Alex stepped off the treadmill and headed over to the chin up bar. "You work off the pasta yet?" Alex called out as she lifted herself up. Kara chuckled as she upped the speed and resistance on the bike until perspiration dripped down the bridge of her nose and her calves tingled with strain.

Alex stretched her limbs as she released her hands from the bar. She patted her neck with a towel. Kara slowed her pace until her heart rate returned to normal. Taking the stairs back up to Alex's apartment, she said, "Lena has the Rothko in her home. She's intent on auctioning it off, but it'll be there for a few days unless we want to hit the auction house."

Alex unlocked the door and slipped off her running shoes. Her forearms glistened with sweat. "Security is tougher at the auction house." She called Veronica and put her on speakerphone. "How soon can the buyer take delivery?"

There was a pause at the other end of the line. "Is the painting in National City?"

"I saw it with my own eyes," Kara answered.

"Let me contact them. I'll call you back in fifteen minutes."

Kara rummaged through the refrigerator to grab them something cold to drink. Alex retrieved her drafts from her bedroom and spread them out onto the dining room table. "Here’s what we have in mind for Lena’s apartment. It's a shame these plans for infiltrating the auction house will go to waste. Maybe we can save them for a future job." At Kara's scowl, Alex added, "I'm joking. I’ll dump them into an industrial shredder after this is all over."

“I’m the one who has to slip on the mask and be mentally present every moment I’m with Lena because the truth is waiting to fly off the tip of my tongue. You get to watch everything through a set of binoculars moving everyone like pieces on a chessboard,” Kara muttered as she stared at the kitchen floor.

“Are you alright?” Alex asked. She felt like an idiot the second the words came out of her mouth because they clearly weren’t.

Kara sighed as she leaned against the sink and wrapped her arms around her torso. “I didn’t mean to be short with you. It was easy to joke about taking on one last job to relive the days when we thought we were the coolest kids around, but I’m falling asleep at night wondering who I am and who I want to be. I should be worrying about my master’s thesis and preparing for job interviews, which shouldn’t matter if we get the money, but devoting my energy to deceiving Lena feels like taking a step away from the path of a journalist.”

Alex chewed on her tongue. “I get what you mean. I’m supposed to be designing security systems to stop the bad guys, not enriching people like Veronica Sinclair or her mysterious buyer. If you think the situation is getting too dicey, tell me your honest thoughts, and we can wade through the fallout together. The choice to walk away is still ours.”

“I feel better after venting. Let’s book an international trip somewhere with you, me, and Eliza for after this is over to give ourselves something to look forward to. We could rent a villa in Tuscany to soak up the sun and drink our way through the vineyards.”

The phone atop the dining table rang again. Veronica said, "They can be here for the hand-off late afternoon on Saturday."

"We can grab the painting that day and deliver it to them. I don’t want to be holding onto it longer than I have to," Alex said without taking her eyes off Kara. "Will the money be ready?"

"I'll have it transferred to your accounts before their private plane is back in the air."

"Send us the meeting details," Alex replied as she ended the call.

"The modern art museum is hosting a guest day this Saturday; members can bring a guest in for free. Not like Lena can't afford it, but it's the gesture that counts. There's a good Chinese place nearby we could go to for lunch before we check out the exhibits," Kara said as she rubbed the back of her neck.   

"I'll need 30 minutes to retrieve the goods and whatever you can give me for a head start to pass off the paintings, but don't take any unnecessary risks. We're almost done, so let's make a clean getaway.”

"I'll be eating lunch and visiting a museum. You're the one breaking and entering, so you be careful." Kara said as she stepped over for a hug. "Ew, you're all gross and sweaty."

"Love you too, and Tuscany sounds wonderful."

 

 

 

Psi rolled up to Alex's apartment complex in an SUV she'd stolen from a park and ride lot to maximize the amount of time it would take the owner to report the theft. Alex and Livewire met her at the curb dressed in matching sneakers and black track suits. They had tucked their respective red and white hair into baseball caps pulled low over their eyes. Even Livewire remained silent on the ride over to Lena's apartment aside from fidgeting in her seat.

Psi parked in an alleyway behind the building. Alex took a deep breath before stepping out of the car with Livewire. They weaved into the surveillance camera blind spots that they'd identified beforehand. Psi pulled away to circle the block and keep a lookout from a distance. Livewire drew out a set of pliers from the messenger bag strapped tight across her chest and knelt down by the emergency fire exit. Alex swiveled her head between both ends of the alley.

"The alarm's disabled," Livewire announced as she pushed open the door and raced up the emergency stairwell. Alex followed after taking the metal steps two at a time while lugging oversized cardboard packing tubes under her arms. She paced her body into a steady rhythm up the twenty-four flights to the penthouse level, which separated her mind from the burning in her quadriceps and lungs. For all the grief they'd given each other, Alex had to commend Livewire for already having unlocked the door to Lena's suite by the time she caught up.

Alex made a beeline for the Rothko. Livewire fiddled with the beeping security system in between panting breaths and wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her gloved hand. Kara had provided them the bypass code from observing Lena punch it in, but Alex had insisted Livewire first try to disable it the old-fashioned way to avoid tipping off that they had an inside woman. Alex unhooked the painting from its mount and turned it around to lean it against the wall. She took out her own set of pliers to peel back the staples securing the canvas to the wooden frame’s edges. Her exhausted thigh muscles screamed out as she squatted down to start from the bottom.

The security system ceased beeping, and Livewire jogged over to help pluck out staples from the other side. Her face was still flush from the exertion up the stairs. As they met in the middle, Livewire moved onto the next painting while Alex caught the Rothko before it slid to the ground. Her fingers vibrated with adrenaline, so she squeezed them tight to regain feeling. She rolled the painting up and secured it into a packing tube she’d marked ahead of time with a silver Sharpie before joining Livewire at the next piece.

After clearing Lena’s walls, the pair heaved the half dozen tubes over their shoulders and pivoted their way back down the stairwell. Alex called Psi to have her return to the earlier drop off point in the alley. They paused inside the doorway of the ground floor to catch their breath and tuck in any stray hairs back into their caps. The two thieves then walked with purpose to the car. Psi had already lifted the hatch to the trunk and opened the passenger doors. They secured the prizes in the back, and Psi hit the accelerator the moment their butts hit their seats. Livewire guzzled down half the contents of a water bottle. Alex rolled down the windows to feel the air rushing through her hair while her beating heart pulled back from trying to burst free of her ribcage.

 

 

 

Kara sat at a booth in the restaurant fiddling with the napkin in her lap wondering how she would finish this story if she were reporting on it. The cleanest escape would be to slowly drift away from Lena's life, since there was no point to sticking around after the payday. She’d quit the bartending gig for good and finish Journalism school. Lena might be devastated to lose her only friend in the city, but she'd have her insurance payout and the good memories.

Kara and Alex had discovered for themselves on their first con at the wine store that the ‘discounts’ on the actually counterfeit bottles intrigued customers enough to examine the backroom’s inventory, but purchases came from a sense that they had stumbled into the secret code of true connoisseurs rather than from greed alone. They’d been elevated by these fresh-faced gatekeepers to access libations the philistines in the general public didn't even have the imagination to appreciate. The sisters walked away with the money, but the marks gained an internal certainty that now they were the ones in the know.

The template worked like a charm when all Kara needed to do to enter Lena’s life was to give her an insider's look at the authentic National City laying beyond the doors of her office, but a sense of foreboding weighed on Kara’s chest as she approached the finale. A con in which everyone walked away happy was the perfect game she and Alex strived for, but they’d also run jobs that relied on them to disappear a day before the jewelry, gold bullion, safety deposit box, antiques, vintage car, etc. turned up missing. Maintaining the lies to stay in Lena's orbit for however many months or years it took for their relationship to play out sounded like needles-under-the-fingernails levels of torture, but Kara wondered if the psychic pain might dull to something bearable over time with Lena at her side.

Lena entered the restaurant and had a smile on her face from the moment she spotted Kara to well after she sat down to order. The wind blew on the walk over to the museum after lunch, so they held hands and brushed their shoulders together. They joined in on a docent led tour, though Kara only heard half the words. The pair wandered off on their own before coming to rest at a bench in front of one of Monet's lily watercolors. A few art students sat on the floor sketching the paintings while other patrons listened to audio tours.

"I grew up in Metropolis before moving away for boarding school and college, but I want my collection to find a home here," Lena said. "I called the curator about pulling some of the paintings from the auction so that I could lend them to the museum. I'll send you the details for when we've finalized a date for the gallery opening."

"I'll look forward to it." Kara said. Her cheeks felt hot despite the museum’s AC sending goosebumps down her back. “What would you do if—”

Lena's cell phone buzzed. She looked at the caller ID with a furrowed brow. "I'm sorry but I should take this; it's my lawyer calling for some reason."

Kara's back arched as she gripped the bench with white knuckles. She felt the potstickers and scallion pancakes coming back up. Lena strode off to a corner to hold the conversation but her voice carried through the mostly empty room. "Stolen? I saw the paintings in my home just a few hours ago...Yes, I know a Veronica Sinclair...Don't know her...Don't know her... Alex _Danvers_ , you said?"

Lena turned to face Kara, who was overcome with a throbbing urge to sprint away, but her feet remained bound to the floor.


	5. Surprise the Audience

**_3 Hours Ago_ **

"It's like these abandoned warehouses multiply when your back is turned," Psi commented as she folded her arms against the draft blowing through the industrial space. Water dripped down from the ceiling into puddles on the concrete floor despite the lack of rain in the past several days. After wiping down the getaway car for fingerprints, they'd ditched it along the side of the road for a Cadillac SUV Veronica had rented for the meet up, though they’d had the good sense to swap out the license plates.

A black town car with tinted windows coasted through the warehouse gates towards the crew. Hired muscle in black suits fanned out from the vehicle and surveyed the scene before the driver opened a passenger door. An older woman with her blonde hair pulled back into a bun stepped out. She kept her hands in the pockets of her camel hair trench coat. "Roulette, I didn't expect your call so soon. I wasn’t planning on receiving the paintings for a few months at least."

"Under promise and over deliver," Veronica answered. She'd donned her signature red dress with the open slit despite the chill. Pulling up a gallery of images on her tablet, she said, "Here's what else we were able to pick up if you would like to add anything else to your collection. You don't have to decide now; we can hold onto them for a few days while we work out the details."

A bodyguard crossed the distance between the two groups to receive the tablet and then passed it over to his employer. She swiped her fingers through the camera roll. "I'll take them all."

"Excellent," Veronica said with a smile as the bodyguard returned the tablet. "$10 million for the Rothko, less the $80,000 advance you graciously provided, and shall we say 8.75% of the auction listing price for the remaining pieces?"

"No, I think the advance is a more than fair enough delivery fee to retrieve what's mine." The men behind her shifted their bodies for easier access to their gun holsters.

"Your paintings?" Livewire asked with a raised voice. She took a step toward the opposing group before Psi grabbed her by the elbow and told her to cool off.

"I was the one who encouraged my husband to begin collecting art over thirty years ago. The Rothko was the jewel of our efforts spent hunting for rising artists and staking out auctions. If he'd listen to me more, we'd have a few Basquiats too, but no use crying over spilled milk. Thanks to the continual shifting of assets between various trusts by our estate planners and Lex's unjust incarceration, the paintings wrongly ended up in Lena's hands. I'm simply taking back what's mine."

"You hired us to steal from your own daughter," Livewire said. "That's messed up."

"Are we doing this or not?" Lillian directed toward Veronica. She removed her hand from her pockets to gesture at her armed bodyguards.

As Veronica grit her teeth, Alex stepped in to defuse the standoff. "We're doing this."  She retrieved the rolled-up paintings from the car while Psi kept a pinching grip on Livewire. Veronica balled her hands into fists, but otherwise did nothing but glare at Lillian. Alex handed the cardboard tubes to the opposing side. "Are we square?"

Lillian smirked. "We're square," she stated as she unrolled the Rothko canvas to inspect it. Satisfied with the product, she returned it to a bodyguard to secure in the trunk. Without a second look at the crew, Lillian got back into the car which then drove away as they watched on.

"What the shit was that?!" Livewire asked as she shoved Psi. "And what the fuck happened, Veronica?"

"They all brought guns and Kevlar vests, while none of us did, so I'd rather not get shot and left to bleed out because of your split-second impulse to escalate the situation," Psi replied.

"I'm getting screwed out of my share too," Veronica shouted back as she pulled out her phone. "Lillian’s going to be digging her own grave if she doesn’t get us the money." When it became clear that marshaling her network would take more than a few minutes, Alex ushered them all back into the car so that they could at least get out of standing around in the warehouse. Psi focused on driving them back to Veronica's apartment to regroup while Veronica alternated between yelling into the phone and hanging up to dial someone else. Halfway home, Veronica tore open a packet of nicotine gum from her purse and popped two pieces into her mouth.

As they walked through the apartment door, Psi asked, "You have anything to eat?" At the looks from the other women, she continued, "What? I'm too nervous before a job to eat anything. The job's technically over for the moment, and I'm starving."

"Check the fridge," Veronica answered as she jotted down notes from her phone conversation onto a takeout menu. "And everyone take off your shoes. This is an Asian household."

Psi found a half-eaten salad bowl and a few bottles of La Croix after she set her boots down by the door. "How about something to drown our sorrows in?"

Veronica pointed towards the cabinets as she spat out the wad of gum and popped another piece into her mouth. "I don't think you should be going through nicotine gum that fast," Alex commented to which Veronica responded with a middle finger.

Psi pulled down a bottle of Hennessy from the cabinet. Veronica yelled out, "That was a gift. I'm saving it for a special occasion that doesn't involve you three. There's some champagne I set aside for a victory celebration before all of this went to hell." Psi returned the cognac to its place and grabbed the wine. She unceremoniously popped the cork and filled up three flutes. With a half-hearted clink, Psi, Livewire, and Alex downed the champagne which tasted understandably bitter given the current state of their night. Alex stared at the empty glass as Veronica booted up her laptop while Facetiming on a tablet with the phone still cradled against her neck. Alex rolled her eyes as she wrangled Psi and Livewire out of the apartment to pick up provisions for however long it would take to recover their payment from Lillian.

Walking back toward the parking garage, Alex called in a to go order of Thai and then drove them over to the local grocery store. Livewire heaved a case of beer into the shopping cart while Psi added vodka and a bottle of orange juice. Alex picked out a whiskey. Psi mused about the odds that Veronica had staged the whole incident with Lillian to scam them out of their reward, but Alex let it pass without comment for the moment.

By the time they returned, Veronica was still juggling three devices at once with the only noticeable change being that she had plugged her phone into the outlet by the kitchen counter. Psi and Alex unpacked containers of pad thai and drunken noodles on the coffee table in the living room. Psi had already munched on some crab rangoon on the ride back. Livewire grabbed plates from the kitchen cabinet. Veronica wandered over for a chicken satay skewer which she dipped into a styrofoam bowl of peanut sauce.

Veronica had fallen silent by the end of their early dinner, focusing on a half dozen IM conversations going by the constant flurry of pings from her laptop. Livewire turned on the TV and scrolled through Netflix. Alex closed her eyes and sank into the couch as she listened to the hum of the alcohol in her veins. With Lillian probably never intending to pay them in the first place, Alex doubted the woman would have the cash on hand to transfer over even if Veronica's contacts could corner her to shake her down. Worst case scenario, Psi had been right on the nose about being doubled crossed, and Veronica and Lillian were about to bury them in a ditch if they didn't let go of this payment.

Alex pulled out her phone. Her finger hovered over the Lyft app to call a car so that she and Kara could get out while they were ahead. If Veronica managed to deliver the money all wrapped up with a bow later on, that would be a pleasant surprise. For now, the twenty thousand advance couldn't buy the beachfront property she dreamed of, but it could rent them that villa in Tuscany.

A thumping came from the front door. "National City police! We have an arrest warrant."

Alex buried her head in her hands as a stream of profanity poured out from Veronica's mouth. As she turned off all her electronic devices, she yelled at the crew, "Keep your goddamned mouths shut until my lawyer arrives."

 

 

 

**_Present_ **

The holding cell had yet to fill up with the night's inebriated troublemakers so the crew had the space to themselves. "I know it hurts to lose out on the $2 million dollars, but I have a nest egg large enough to pay for the lawyers and an address book full of favors to cash in. If we all stick together until the bail hearing on Monday, we'll get through this in the best possible shape. I'm going to need a verbal yes from each of you that no one's going to snitch," Veronica said while the rest of the crew weighed their options.

They had remained stone faced during the arrest and initial interrogations despite their tipsy states, but Alex imagined it wouldn’t take much incentive for Veronica to throw them under the bus to save her own skin. Alex regarded Kara’s absence from the police station and the sight of Veronica’s nervous sweating as the only silver linings to the situation. Her lips flicked up into a smirk which seemed to irritate Veronica.

An officer walked up to the cell and unlocked it. "Sinclair, Marsh, Willis, Danvers, your lawyer came by to clear up the misunderstanding. You're all free and clear."

"There we go," Veronica said with a clap of her hands. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, everyone."

They filed out of the cell into the lobby. A man in khakis and a golf shirt was signing their release papers. "You're not my lawyer," Veronica noted as she slowed her pace.

"I am not, but I am billing the hours to someone you know. They're waiting for you outside," he replied as he secured his briefcase. The crew trailed after the lawyer as he exited out through the main doors. Alex’s eyes caught Veronica digging her fingernails into her palms.

Alex bumped into Psi’s back as the crew had stopped dead at the threshold to the police station. She peeked between their heads to hit upon Lena standing on the sidewalk. The pit dropped out from under her stomach as her breath caught in her throat.

"Kara told me the story. Get in the car," Lena said as she gestured toward a limo idling at the curb.

“Is this the part where you kill us and bury the bodies under L Corp?” Veronica asked.

"And leave your bloodstains all over the leather upholstery? If I wanted you murdered, I'd have you shivved in the prison dinner line instead of arranging for your release,” she replied.

“I didn’t hear that,” the lawyer called out as he hustled away from the scene toward the parking lot at the back of the station.

“You're safe from me and the authorities as long as you get in the limo," Lena said. She turned her back to the crew before giving them a chance to respond. Alex headed in first and found Kara already seated inside. They crushed each other in a hug before scooting over to make room for everyone else with Veronica bringing up the rear. Lena sat opposite them with her hands folded atop her crossed legs letting the silence fill the air. She stared at each of the crew in turn, drinking in their features.

The car started moving. Lena said, "Even though this is all my mother's fault, I'm left to conclude once again that it'll be better for everyone involved if I take responsibility for the clean-up before we inspire a biblical flood of a tabloid headlines that’ll make a mess of my business and the upcoming auction.”

"Who said Lillian was involved?" Veronica asked.

Lena grinned. "My mother is on a small list of people who could and would pay to have my paintings stolen. In addition, the rest of you may not know this, but Veronica and I went to boarding school together. She met my mother during fundraising activities, so when I heard today that Veronica was involved, I made an educated guess."

Veronica pouted. "Get to the point."

"I've had my lawyer explain to the police that your theft was an inheritance squabble I’m declining to press charges on rather than a more outright criminal affair. I would like your help to maintain this fiction for the sake of my reputation, so I'm willing to match my mother's advance of $80,000 plus an extra $20,000 for your troubles, Veronica. Keep in mind, this also keeps you all out of prison."

“I don’t need your pity money, Lena,” Veronica said.

“Then toss it in a dumpster for all I care, or heaven forbid, donate it to charity,”

"You're going to hand each of us $20,000 to walk away scot free?" Psi said. "Weren't you the one who called the cops on us?"

"No, I first heard about the fiasco from my lawyer after you had already been arrested. It was quite the shock for Kara, but she filled me in on the rest of the details from there. I imagine your deal with my mother fell apart, you made some noise about revenge which got back to her, and she phoned in an anonymous tip to the police. It's so like her to use the system to do her bidding," Lena said. "If this were a movie, this might be the part where you offer to retrieve my paintings for me to save your skin, but I can take care of my own problems. I treated my paintings with a mildly radioactive material which is detectable to within a city block anywhere in the world using the right scanning equipment. You wouldn’t have gotten far even if my mother hadn’t betrayed you, twice."

As the car slowed to a stop outside Veronica's apartment, she reiterated, "$20,000 each on top of whatever you already received in exchange for your cooperation and silence. There are no other offers on the table. You are getting off very lightly for jumping feet first between a pair of feuding Luthors."

The crew stared at each other before nodding their assent to the deal and exiting the limo. Kara turned back around to say something, but Lena’s glare sent her into retreat.

Veronica left the crew standing on the sidewalk without a word and re-appeared a few minutes later behind the wheel of her red Civic as it roared out from the underground garage. She would cruise the National City streets until dawn. Livewire and Psi loitered outside the apartment complex not sure of what to do next. Livewire mentioned a band she followed was playing a show that night, so they hailed a Lyft and spent the night listening to punk rock while getting hammered.

Alex and Kara ordered a pizza and fell asleep on Alex’s couch watching movies. In the morning, Kara made chocolate chip pancakes from one of Eliza’s recipes while Alex shredded the documents from their heist. When Lena’s hush money arrived in their bank accounts in the following days, they gathered it up along with whatever cash remained from Veronica’s initial payment to donate to the children’s hospital in Lena’s name. They promised to make up the remainder of the eighty thousand when they could scrape the money together. Alex returned to her job as a security consultant. With rent to pay, Kara also resumed her regular shifts at the hotel bar.

Like assembling one of her articles, Kara agonized over the magic permutation of words she could say to make things right. Lena’s only response to Kara’s voicemails was to block her phone number after the fifth attempt to connect to her, so Kara put her thoughts into a handwritten letter. She had even applied a stamp to the envelope before abandoning the missive in a drawer. She frequented the coffee shop across from L Corp for a few days hoping to catch another glimpse of Lena but doubted she had the right to intrude on her life again. Each night starting from when she stared into her reflection in the bathroom mirror as she brushed her teeth until she drifted into sleep in the quiet of her apartment, Kara thought about the things left unsaid.  

 

 

 

**_3 Months Later_ **

Kara was cutting up limes when a pair of familiar hands placed themselves on the bar. "I don't know whether my attorney or my shrink would have a bigger conniption if they found out I was here," Lena said.

"I—the real me underneath it all—did cherish our time together, that much was real. I’m sorry for how things played out. Right at the end before your lawyer’s call, I thought about spilling my guts to you," Kara rushed out.

"Thinking about it isn't the same as actually doing something when the chips are down," Lena replied. She held her lips in a thin line before softening her features. "Fix me a drink?"

"It would be my pleasure,” Kara said after a beat. She wasn’t sure where Lena was going with this, but she owed her the benefit of a doubt. “I had a few recipes up my sleeve I never got to make for you. This is a little out of season, but it's a quintessential National City drink." Kara swirled a lime wedge around a glass stein and dipped the rim into a plate of sea salt. A scoop of ice cubes clinked into the glass next. Lena's eyebrows rose as Kara knelt down to the fridge under the bar counter to grab a bottle of clamato juice. She measured a shot glass’s worth of the bright red mixture of tomato and clam juice. The eyebrows rose higher as Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, and a last squeeze from the lime wedge followed like some fraternity hazing ritual. Finally, Kara cracked open a can of Mexican beer to pour over the concoction.

"This is michelada," Kara said as she pushed the fizzing stein toward Lena. A college friend had first prepared it for Kara in the kitchen of a house party. They'd lost touch after graduation, but Kara always thought of her whenever she came across the drink. She hoped to leave behind the same type of totem for Lena even if she couldn’t physically be by her side.

Lena raised the drink up to her lips. The carbonation bubbling up tickled her nose and carried the savory scent of all the ingredients. She took an exploratory sip. "You know that I'm not much of a beer drinker, but this is surprisingly refreshing."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's always nice to be reminded that I'm good at what I do."

"Too good sometimes, which I think was what got you into trouble," Lena said. "I only started suspecting you when I invited myself over for dinner and saw the Rothko biography on your bookcase. I thought it was sweet you'd taken an interest in him based on what I'd said, but then I flipped through the pages and landed on a receipt from a week prior to when I first mentioned that particular part of my collection. I told myself it was a coincidence and that I didn’t need my paranoia pushing away a wonderful woman who was making me dinner. I rationalized the background check I ran on you. I made my peace with the whole you-being-a-journalist thing. On this point, however, the voice at the back of my head kept nagging away. So, I went into the lab at L Corp, grabbed the radioactive tracer, and swabbed it over my collection as a failsafe. The guilt chewed me up inside until I found out I was right. Then I felt worse."

"We didn't target you out of a vendetta or because we thought you were an easy mark. Veronica and Lillian wanted your paintings specifically. This doesn’t excuse my behavior, but I was glad to read that you recovered the canvases from your mother and that the auction is going forward. I wish I could have helped in some way," Kara said. Lena declined to respond by bringing the michelada up to her lips to fill the silence. "This is going to sound stupid, but will I see you again?"

"Like in court?" Lena teased.

"Just around. We have $4 shots on Wednesdays if that's an extra incentive for you," Kara said. That got a chuckle out of Lena. "I did care about you, and I want to make sure you're doing well. I'm not your psychologist, but you came here for a reason. I'd like to think you're holding onto something of our time together too."

"I hosted the Luthor gala last week—the first time since I took over the firm, and the first since I uprooted my life to National City. During the night, the DJ played a song from the Mitski album you got me into. _And I know no one will save me / I just need someone to kiss_."

" _Give me one good honest kiss / And I'll be alright_ ," Kara completed.

"I damn near shattered the champagne flute in my hand when I heard those lyrics," Lena said. "I had Jess look up my calendar when I got back into the office, and once I filtered out the work engagements, it looked blindingly empty since our time together. I used to think shouldering my burdens on my own was a sign of strength, but on those days when I barely had time to grab a protein bar for lunch, I would remember we had dinner plans and the day didn’t seem so long or stressful. If my troubles get too troublesome, I might drop by your bar again to lay them down. If you happen to relieve me of my wallet and empty my bank accounts before I'm tucked into bed, don't expect another chance after that."

"Fair enough," Kara said. “I'll be starting a job at Catco Worldwide Media in June after graduation so I won’t be here anymore, but give me a call anytime. I'll have a drink and an attentive ear waiting for you. I owe you that much.”

"Congratulations. I knew you were destined for great things, and that's an offer I will keep in mind," Lena said.

“If you’re up for it, I’ll even properly introduce you to my sister, and we’ll have a game night. She has an apology to deliver too."

“I don’t know if I’m ready for two Danvers in my life just yet, but I’ll sleep on it. Goodbye for now, Kara.”

Lena rose from the bar stool to leave. She had taken a step toward the exit before pausing and deciding to circle around the counter to wrap herself around Kara. Lena breathed in the aroma of citrus and whiskey that lingered around her after shifts behind the bar. Kara’s fingers brushed over the smooth fabric of Lena’s blouse that she’d familiarized herself with so many times before. The warmth of the other’s arms lingered on their bodies long after Lena left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Concrit and other feedback are very much appreciated.
> 
> Here's the link to Mitski’s song, “Nobody,” in case you wanted a listen. She wrote it after spending the holidays half way across the world from everyone she knew.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qooWnw5rEcI


End file.
